The new minimum wage set to take effect Sunday doesn’t come close to lifting many Albertans from the ranks of the working poor, one Alberta advocacy group said.

The minimum hourly wage is going up 20 cents to $9.95, but Public Interest Alberta said it lags behind the real cost of living in Alberta.

“Too many Albertans are working hard, but still not able to earn a living wage,” said Julie Hrdlicka, the group’s outreach co-ordinator in Calgary.

Public Interest Alberta estimates moving past poverty or subsistence living in Alberta requires earning an hourly wage of $15 or more.

Recent data the group bought from Statistics Canada show more than one in five Albertans are living below that threshold.

According to Statistics Canada data for the year ending June 30, 381,200 out of a provincial workforce of 1.82 million made less than $15 an hour — approximately 21 per cent.

Calgary’s workforce was consistent with the statistics, with 129,400 earning less than $15 hourly.

“That’s enough to fill six and a half Saddledomes,” said Hrdlicka, referring to the home of the NHL’s Calgary Flames.

A disproportionate rate of women fall below the $15-an-hour mark — 62 per cent provincewide and in Calgary, Hrdlicka said.

A worker at the Calgary Women’s Centre said this is an added strain considering women are often primarily responsible for child care.

“Every day, I speak to women struggling to get by on low incomes,” said Leah Kelley, the centre’s community engagement co-ordinator.

“One crisis is all it takes to plunge further into the depths of poverty.”

Although the general minimum wage is going up, the bottom rate remains $9.05 an hour for liquor servers — a job largely held by women, Kelley added.

The overall statistics are an improvement over data obtained by Public Interest Alberta last year, which put the rate of Albertans making less than $15 an hour at nearly 25 per cent throughout the province.

“People may look at (this) as some people are getting better, but people are still getting left out,” Hrdlicka said.

But the head of a small business lobby group said the improvement over last year shows Alberta’s strong economy is pushing up wages on its own.

“People have been achieving greater prosperity on their own two feet,” said Richard Truscott, Alberta director of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

Small businesses can afford wage increases that keep pace with inflation, but Truscott said anything beyond that would hurt workers because employers would have to cut positions or hours.

“Small businesses have limited ability to raise their prices. That money has to come from somewhere,” he said.

Even with the increase, Alberta’s minimum wage remains the lowest in Canada. The average among the 13 provinces and territories is $10.21 an hour.

Although Public Interest Alberta and other organizations advocate the concept of a “living wage” to allow people to move beyond subsistence, advocates say the reasons people fall into poverty are often complex and require additional solutions.

“The second priority is affordable child care,” Hrdlicka said.

In Calgary, city council approved a plan in May aimed at cutting the rate of poverty in half by 2023.

The Calgary Poverty Reduction Initiative made recommendations across 16 different sectors, including health, education, justice and aboriginal issues.

The Alberta government is now undertaking a similar provincewide plan, making it crucial for agencies to push for a variety of potential fixes, said Janet Eremenko of Vibrant Communities Calgary.

“The political will is there and it’s about looking at the root causes,” she said.

The income data, combined with high real estate prices and a rental vacancy rate hovering around one per cent, makes finding more affordable housing “at the top of the list,” Eremenko said.

In addition to data for Calgary and the province, statistics for Edmonton, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Red Deer, Grande Prairie, as well as the Wood Buffalo and Cold Lake Region are available on Public Interest Alberta’s website.

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.